


i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

by twelveam



Category: Monster Hunter (Video Games), Monster Hunter Stories (Video Games)
Genre: Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-16
Updated: 2020-02-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:48:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22745803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twelveam/pseuds/twelveam
Summary: what to do when you are prophesized, what to do when you are cataclysm wrapped in the form of a child, what to do when you can no longer look at the world for fear of causing calamity.hold tight harbinger; the world is not done with you yet.
Relationships: Cheval & Lilia & Nettle (Monster Hunter)
Kudos: 4





	i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

* * *

. 

Nettle remembers Vlau in pieces fuzzed over with static. The memories buzz and snap at the back of their head, pain-charged and electric in their intensity.

The luminous red of Vlau's hair like spiderlilies under the moonlight. Her hands at Nettle's face, warm and chafed, like Nettle was still someone to be cherished. The scent of spices.

Easy grace in her movements, how she would tuck Nettle's hair behind their ears and tell them to face towards the sun a little more. 

"You can let the light in, can't you?" she would say. 

"You can rest here for the night."

"Nettle you are only a child, please. Please let us take care of you for once."

"You don't need to earn this. You don't need to earn love."

"You don't deserve to hurt this way."

Nettle holds on to those words. They hold on to them _hard_.

**[**. . and nettle can barely remember her face, is losing the honey shade of her eyes to the memory of red stained stones and copper tinted dust. sometimes they catch a glimpse of them in cheval's gaze but his eyes are amber now, dark and heavy. **]**

There is nothing but rubble where Vlau's house once stood but again and again Nettle returns, hoping to see something different. They barely notice the sinking sun, the coming cold and the wind's sharp bite.

Not until Cheval's hand wraps around their wrist, his hold trembling. Lilia stands in front of them, smile wavering at the corners of her lips, kept on her face by force of will and nothing else. It looks like she's been standing there for a while and when she speaks something vibrates in her voice, low and sorrowful.

"You were looking again weren't you?" she asks.

Nettle drops their gaze and tries not to flinch. It doesn't work. Cheval's hold gently tightens and they focus on the pressure. 

"I was trying to remember," whispers Nettle, words dredged up with difficulty. "I've been seeing her through the monster's eyes and -"

Cheval goes still. Lilia's smile falls away from her face. She strides forward and wraps her arms around the both of them, squeezing as hard as she can. Cheval drops his head onto their shoulder.

"Stop looking," she says, voice muffled into Nettle's shoulder. "You hurt worse everytime you do."

"It wasn't your fault," murmurs Cheval. "It wasn't."

"You can't see everything."

Nettle sighs shakily, going slack in the circle of their arms as they try to hold themself together. They sink down into a heap, taking the others down with them into an uncoordinated sprawl. They curl up like that, leaning against the sunwarmed stones, still holding to each other. Eventually they untangle.

Cheval rises first, wraps his fingers around both Nettle and Lilia's wrists and pulls them up. 

"Come on," he says. "Time to go home."

His voice hollows on home but he says it anyways. 

Lilia knocks her shoulders against his and nearly topples him over. Her smile is small now, but real. Sharp and mischievous like they always are and Cheval takes it for what it is.

Nettle nudges him upright from the other side and closes their eyes, listening to their sudden squabbling and trusting the arms around them to keep them from falling, trusting the ground beneath them to stay firm.

Behind their eyelids the world shifts and shatters, melts and reforms like glass stained with color. The memory of the monster's eyes lurks close by, vision tinged furious red and blackened by the blight. 

They take a deep breath and ignore it, focus instead on the bright, lively blue of the waterpools through the eyes of velocidrome hatchlings, the slow roll of green from a grazing aptonoth's view. It's better.

It's enough.

* * *

. 

**Author's Note:**

> this is a reupload that i moved over here bc organization ! i have this one vaguely planned out & it's mostly gonna be world-building + found family !


End file.
